Green Millionaire to Produce First Zero-Impact Lab-Grown Diamonds
November 01, 20
(IDEX Online) - A British "green" millionaire is poised to produce the world's first "zero-impact diamonds".
Dale Vince says his Sky Diamonds company will capture carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere to produce 200 carats of environmentally-friendly CVD (carbon vapor deposition) lab-growns a month, scaling up to 1,000 next year.
He'll use wind and solar electricity, and water collected from rainfall at a "sky mining facility" in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England.
Mr Vince (pictured at his wind farm) is passionate about his green credentials. The former New Age traveler founded the green electricity company Ecotricity - which has 200,000 customers - and owns Britain's first vegan football club.
He told The Guardian newspaper he hoped to challenge the traditional diamond mining industry, which causes "irreversible damage" to the environment.
The diamonds will be accredited by the International Gemological Institute, though details of prices have not yet been fixed.